Last year, the College Board reported a drop in SAT scores from the Class of 2012 compared to the year before, showing that only 43% of high school graduates were ready for college. For the Class of 2013, scores remained virtually unchanged. This is making the College Board a little peeved and are now marking the stagnant performance as a “call to action”.
With the Common Core State Standard Initiative soon to be implemented, the writers of the SAT will soon get their wish. The Common Core will completely revamp the education system’s teaching criteria, fully outlining what students are to learn from Kindergarten to 12th Grade to better prepare them for college. The College Board will be changing their test to model after these standards in hopes that they will see improvements in their test scores. The question is though, will it work?
The problem with modeling our education system based on test scores is that we tend to resort to reinforcing memorization instead of actually teaching students something. Standardized tests great as a point of reference, but when we start boiling down our teaching criteria to math, science, and reading, we lose the essence of what it means to learn. We now treat learning like it’s some religious calling on society when it really should be seen as something that we have the freedom to do.
Our education system needs a good, swift kick in the pants. There’s no debate over that. And from the looks of it, it’s going to get one very shortly; but is it being guided in the right direction? Will what the College Board is calling for and what the CCSSI is outlining make the changes needed to get our education system back in shape? I have my doubts, but only time will really tell.
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